The present invention relates to vehicle panels and particularly to external trim panels.
Vehicle trim panels, such as rocker panels or ground effect panels at the front or the rear of a vehicle have in the past been made of sheet metal and typically attached to the vehicle by spot welding, riveting, or other conventional fastening means. In recent years, such panels have been made of molded polymeric materials, such as ABS, and finished to conform to the appearance of the panels to the vehicle exterior. Such panels have typically been attached as original equipment manufactured (O.E.M.) panels by a variety of fastening techniques including metal tangs and brackets extending from the inner surface of the molded panel facing the vehicle and including attachment apertures for receiving standard fasteners, such as rivets or threaded fasteners, for attaching the panel to the vehicle. Such metal attachments typically were spaced along the length of the panel and frequently required numerous separate vertically and horizontally spaced mounting members for attachment of the upper and lower areas of the panels.
Also, in recent years, add-on after-market decorative panels, such as rocker panels, spoilers and the like have been employed for attachment to vehicles to improve the appearance, performance or otherwise decorate the vehicle exterior. Such, molded polymeric rocker panels have included metallic fastening straps and brackets at spaced intervals along the added-on rocker panel which required careful alignment for attachment to existent rocker panels.
Although such add-on panels provided the desired appearance for a vehicle modification, the requirement of a plurality of aligned fasteners separately attached to the molded polymeric add-on panel together with the need for multiple fasteners and careful alignment of the members resulted in assembly problems, surface imperfections and costly production steps. Thus, there exists a need for an improved trim panel construction which reduces the cost of manufacturing and assembly to a vehicle and one which can be employed for either OEM or after-market use.